Sunday, December 14, 2008

Received my Holiday Season gifts from my eldest sister yesterday. It arrived, a brown cardboard box, quite plain in appearance but inside years of memories converged. This treasure trove of gifts were the articulation of memories that spanned over three decades.

Amongst the treasures, a weaver had recreated my snowy owl perched on a twig. It had attracted my sister's eye at the Ottawa Weavers and Knitters show. It told me she remembered I had regular visits from an owl very much like it at my hobby farm in PenseSasktachewan in 1975. I still feel the cold of the prairie, I still hear the deafening quiet, still see the glaring white snow and the sight of this great white owl sitting majestically on the same pole everyday just outside my farm house.

Art galleries have been my favorite sources for inspiration. But it is the gift shop that provides the item or image you can take home. My sister includes every year a wall calendar. It always depicts some master painter, it could be impressionists, or modern, it might even be medieval tapestries. Whatever the theme it conveys my true passions as wide as they are. And only a sister would know. This year it was Gustave Klimpt. Along the same idea were cards, portraits by Klimpt and another set of cards portraying the same medieval tapestry from my calendar of 2007. Hidden deep in the box were humbugs by Robertson, and chocolates from Stubbe's. All my favorites, all precious, all defining a memory and bringing it to light to be shared again.

I wish you and yours the opportunity of sharing your stories over the next few weeks. Make giftgiving one that creates stories in your Familylore.

Sunday, December 7, 2008

What are stories but remembrances of events. One important element to being a collector of Familylore is to recognize that there are stories that may be painful to remember.

Living so close to Quebec I cannot help thinking about those who lost their daughter, sister, colleague, friend on December 6th at Montreal's EcolePolytechnique. In 1989 a man gunned down 14 women Montreal's Ecolepolytechnique. He had left a letter that explained his reasons, they were women.

It is important to help others keep these stories from becoming invisible. A scan of newspapers and sites brought little to bear regarding this historical and horrible part of our history. I was especially disappointed with the Status of Women Canada site that had a few paragraphs and little else. There was a time when this site had everything a community needed to mark this "National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women In Canada".